Pakistan raids suspected Al Qaeda site near Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistani forces swept through a remote tribal region believed to be an Al Qaeda hide-out yesterday, razing houses to punish uncooperative tribesmen and detaining more than 20 suspected militants, military officials said.

The operation in South Waziristan, a mountainous region that borders Afghanistan, was the latest in a series of increasingly aggressive forays by the Pakistani Army into the rugged region. Many local and foreign officials say the fiercely independent population there may be sheltering Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

Pakistani soldiers backed with artillery and helicopter gunships rounded up at least 20 suspected Al Qaeda operatives and sympathizers in the operation, some of them "foreigners," said Major General Shaukat Sultan, an army spokesman. The Associated Press reported that three Arab women were among the captives.

Sultan called the raid a "success," but said it was not yet clear whether the army had netted any significant terrorist suspects. He said the army acted on a tip that militants were hiding near the town of Wana, about 200 miles southwest of Islamabad. The operation started in a village named Zarkai, then spread to the villages of Kaloosha and Azam Warsak.

Pressure to flush fugitives out of the border region has mounted on Pakistan as the United States has grown more impatient to find Osama bin Laden, say Pakistani and Western officials in Islamabad and in Kabul, the Afghan capital. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is due to go to Afghanistan this week, and CIA director George J. Tenet visited Islamabad last week.

Sultan said yesterday's raid was the culmination of months of efforts to persuade tribesmen to give up fugitives or have the whole tribe face repercussions, a variant of a British colonial strategy used in the region.

The tribes had until Feb. 20 to surrender Al Qaeda suspects and sympathizers. The president, General Pervez Musharraf, has promised that no tribesman who surrenders will be extradited to the United States. Pakistani officials say about 60 suspects so far have been handed over by village elders. The raid drew criticism from opposition politicians, who argue that Musharraf has broken a longstanding understanding between the central government and the tribes and has compromised national sovereignty to appease his US allies. News reports citing people in the area said authorities had torn down at least three houses belonging to tribesmen accused of not cooperating with the military.

"It is very dangerous," said Liaqat Baloch, deputy president of the religious-conservative Jamaat-i-Islami party. "We always think that in the tribal regions we can depend on [local] loyalty, but after this action they could turn against Pakistan."

Many Pakistanis believe military activities in the border region are designed to produce an intelligence success ahead of US presidential elections in November.

"There's a strong link between the activity in the tribal areas and the US election," said Baloch. "This isn't antiterrorism; it's just a political action to bolster support for [President] Bush in the United States."

Some Pakistani politicians and analysts have also expressed renewed concern regarding reports that US soldiers are crossing from Afghanistan into Pakistan to chase suspected terrorists.

The Pakistani government has long denied giving the US permission for "hot pursuit," but The Boston Globe last week quoted Pentagon officials as saying Pakistan often allows US forces to cross into its territory.

General David Barno, head of the US-led coalition in Afghanistan, told reporters last week that Pakistani and coalition forces were using a "hammer and anvil" strategy to trap fugitives in the border area. American forces on the Afghan side of the border were spending protracted periods in villages, getting to know the local people and gathering intelligence, he said.

"If you allow foreign troops to operate on your soil, then you have willy-nilly given up some of your sovereign territory," said Hamid Gul, a retired general who headed Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency during the late 1980s. By stepping up activity in the tribal areas, Pakistan was hoping to keep US troops at bay, he said.

"Pervez Musharraf is trying to preempt [hot pursuit] by showing the US: Look, we're doing everything we can here," Gul said.